¨
The
“s” endings of third person singulars are there.
¨
“-ed”
and “-ing” endings are where they should be.
¨
Adjectives
go before the nouns.
¨
There
are no adjectives in plural.
¨
All
verbs have a subject.
¨
The
order of the sentence is subject/verb/object.
¨
Tenses
agree (e.g. do not jump from the past to the present).
¨
Plurals
agree (e.g. if the subject is plural, use verbs and possesives in plural)
¨
Irregular
verbs are correct.
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Modal and auxiliary verbs are followed by an
infinitive ALWAYS. (e.g. *doesn’t goes,
*must has are incorrect)
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“Hasn’t”
is only possible when it is an auxiliary verb. That is, “He hasn’t got time” is
possible, but “*He hasn’t a brother” is wrong. If you are using hasn’t make sure you write “got”.
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“He”
is for males, “she” is for females,
“it” is for animals and things.
There are very few exceptions to this so stick to that rule.
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As a general rule, “some” is for affirmative sentences. Same with “someone”,
“somebody”, “something”, “somewhere”.
o
“Any”
is for negatives and interrogatives. Same with “anyone”, “anybody”, “anything” “anywhere”.
o
“Nobody”,
“no one”, “nothing” and “nowhere” appear in AFFIRMATIVE sentences, even though
they have a negative meaning.
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“Much”
and “a little” go with uncountable nouns
(e.g. “I don’t have much time”, “We have a little money”).
o
“Many” and “a
few” go with countable plural nouns (e.g. “I don’t have many
students”, “I have a few books”)
o
“A lot of”
goes with uncountable and plural nouns.
o
“Very”
goes with adjectives.
o
“So”,
with adjectives[1],
means “tan” (that is, “he’s so handsome” means “es tan guapo” NOT “
es muy guapo”)
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“Say”
only has one object, e.g. “ I said it was late”.
o
“Tell”
has two objects, one person and the thing you say. E.g. “I told Sally I was
late”